A corydoras catfish's records belong to the group, not to one fish. Corys are social bottom-dwellers bought in batches, quarantined in batches, and — when illness comes — usually assessed as a school sharing one tank's water and history. A digital record set built around the group captures what actually matters for their care: which batch arrived when and from where, how quarantine went, what the substrate and feeding routine are, and how numbers in the school have changed over time.
One folder for the school, subfolders by record type
Create a folder named for the corydoras group and its tank, then divide it by the kinds of paper a school generates. Purchases holds receipts and the shop or breeder's details for each batch of corys, alongside receipts for tankmates and plants that share their water. Health holds vet invoices, notes from any consultation, and photographs of the fish — useful with corys, whose barbels, fins and body condition can be compared against earlier pictures when something looks off. Insurance holds the policy document and claims details if the setup is covered. A fourth subfolder for quarantine, or a clearly marked section of the group log, tracks each new batch's observation period before they joined the main tank, a record that becomes invaluable if disease appears weeks later and you need to know which arrival it followed.
The group log: numbers, barbels and behaviour
Keep one running log document at the folder's top level and treat it as the school's chart. Record the group's size and how it changes — additions, losses, and how the school has settled over time — plus feeding routine, substrate type and any change to it, since corys forage through the substrate with delicate barbels and a switch from sand to coarse gravel is a health-relevant event worth logging. Note illnesses and how the group responded, water-test results at your regular checks, and any vet advice received. When several corys start flashing, losing barbel length or sitting listlessly instead of foraging, this log is what shows whether the change followed a new batch, a substrate swap or a drift in water readings — the three histories a vet or experienced keeper will ask about first.
Photograph paper the day it arrives
Corydoras paperwork arrives in small, losable pieces: a till receipt, a bag label with the species name, an invoice in an email, a policy schedule as an attachment. Photograph or save each into the right subfolder the day it appears, naming files by content — batch purchase receipt, vet invoice, policy schedule — so the folder can be searched by eye in seconds. Species accuracy matters here more than with many fish, because corydoras species are easily confused in shops; photographing the labelled bag or saving the listing for each batch preserves exactly which species you actually bought, information that decides adult size, temperature preference and breeding notes later. Keep the photographs of the fish themselves in the health subfolder, taken in the same spot under similar light when you can, so comparisons stay honest.
Two storage places, and a set that can travel
Store the group folder in a cloud drive and keep a second copy on another device or a memory stick with the household documents, checking occasionally that the copy is current — a backup from the school's first month will not help in its second year. Make sure a household member or sitter can reach the records if you are away, since a sick school cannot wait for your password. When the set is complete, it should be possible to hand the whole story of the group to another person in one action. KinsLe Pet Passport does that handover by keeping a corydoras group's records together in one portable packet, so the purchase trail, quarantine notes, health history and insurance details move as a unit to the vet, the sitter or the school's next keeper.